


While You Were Sleeping

by skywardPeregrine



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Also some Christmas stuff, Fluff, M/M, Some sad feels I guess, idk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 05:03:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/630707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skywardPeregrine/pseuds/skywardPeregrine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>davesprite and john need to stop being stupid and just kiss already<br/>thats<br/>pretty much the whole point of this?? i guess??</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Your name is John Egbert, and sometimes Davesprite has nightmares. You know he doesn’t actually sleep, since he’s a game construct (you hate calling him that); he just goes into a sort of standby mode. You also know there isn’t really night or day here, in the place between the two sessions. Just a sort of perpetual twilight. You could make a Legend of Zelda joke about that, but you don’t feel like it at the moment.

Davesprite always waves you off whenever you ask about his nightmares, claiming they’re not a big deal, but you can see how strained his expression is after he wakes up from one. You don’t press the issue, because the only reason you know he has nightmares is that he “sleeps” in your room with you, and you’re afraid that if you push too hard, he’ll leave.

However, you also really don’t want your best bro to have to deal with these nightmares by himself. You’re never sure what to do, whether you should go over to his nest and shake him awake, or…or what. So you end up sitting there in the dark, watching him frown and twitch, unable to do a thing about it.

God, you’re pathetic.

Eventually he always wakes up and notices you watching him. He always tells you it’s okay, it was just a bad dream, everyone has them, go back to sleep Egbert. You never try to tell him it’s not okay, or that he has bad dreams way more frequently than everyone else. You just nod and go back to sleep.

Tonight, however, Davesprite seems to be having his worst dream yet. You’re watching him once again, and he’s tossing and turning, but you still can’t work up the nerve to do anything.

Finally, much to your surprise, he stops tossing and turning, and curls up in what would probably be a fetal position if he had legs. You’re confused, wondering if he woke up, and you’re about to call out when you hear him start to sob.

They’re horrible, ragged sobs, and you sit straight up, knowing you’ve got to do something this time. Before you can decide what you’re going to do, you’re already standing and moving to his nest of blankets and pillows.

You climb into the nest and sit next to him, noting that there’s only barely enough room for both of you. You’re still not sure what exactly to do, but after a moment he lets out another sob, and you make your decision.

You lie down and wrap your arms around him, nuzzling your face into his ruff. For a little bit you can feel his sobs wracking his body, and then, miraculously, he relaxes, and the room is silent once more.

You’re about to get up and go back to your own bed when Davesprite’s arms slip around your waist, returning the hug. You think he’s still asleep, but you’re not sure anymore.  
“Uh, Dave?”

“Yeah?”

Oh. So he is awake. You try to think of something to say, and finally end up with: “Do you want to talk about them? Your nightmares?”

His sigh ruffles your hair. “Not really. But knowing you, I probably don’t have a choice.”

You smile a little and nod, almost sneezing as a feather tickles your nose. “Exactly. You don’t have a choice.”

“Okay, well…Do you know what happened to…the John from my timeline?”

You do. He died, and you don’t know how, and you don’t want to know. But it looks like you’re going to find out. “Yeah, I…do. Just not the specifics.”

He’s silent for several minutes, and you almost prompt him to continue, but you don’t want to push too hard.

When he speaks again, his voice is quiet, quiet enough that if you weren’t right next to him you wouldn’t be able to hear him. “Terezi tricked him. She gave him the jetpack…Well, she gave it to you too, didn’t she? But the jetpack let him get farther in the game much more quickly than he should have been able to, and he wasn’t ready for what lay in wait. His denizen, Typheus.”

You don’t like where this is going, but you let him continue.

“Typheus was…way too powerful for a player his level to ever defeat. Typheus only had to hit him with one attack, and he…he died. As a result, Jade never got into the Medium, and the only two players left were me and Rose.”

You really don’t like where this is going.

“I…we didn’t know what had happened to you, to him, at first, so I looked for him for a long time before I finally…finally found him.” Davesprite’s voice cracks, and you give him a reassuring squeeze.

“I realized there was no way we were ever going to beat the game like this, so I used my timetables to go back in time and stop you from using the jetpack to get to your denizen’s lair ahead of time.”

You remember that part. Of course you do! It happened to you.

“God, Dave, I’m sorry…”

He shushes you. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault, not at all. But you asked about my nightmares? Well, seeing your best friend’s dead body would be traumatizing to anyone.”

You pet his ruff gently, thinking of how to respond.

“…Well…It’ll be okay now, because I’ll be here to comfort you if you have a nightmare!”

You expect him to push you away, but instead he adjusts his position so that he can tuck his head under your chin. “I…Thanks. I’d like that.”

“I could even sleep in your nest with you, if you want?” you offer hopefully.

You can feel him smile against your neck. “Sure, Egbert.”

You fall asleep listening to the sound of his breathing, and he doesn’t have any more nightmares for the rest of the “night”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> christmasy things happen idk

Your name is Dave Strider, or, well, it used to be. These days you go by Davesprite, although John usually calls you Dave. This is a little unfortunate, because every time he calls you Dave, your heart does this sort of stupid fluttery thing and you really wish it wouldn’t. He’s not your John, and he never will be. It’s up to Alpha Dave to tell him what you were too much of a coward to tell your John.

Speaking of John, you’ve been sleeping with him (not in a sexual sense, obviously) for exactly four months now. For some reason, his presence seems to chase away your nightmares, as cheesy as that sounds. You can’t say you’re not grateful for it.

It’s getting close to Christmastime now. Yours and Jade’s birthdays passed without too much of a fuss. Nanna was all for having two separate birthday parties, but luckily Jade and John saw it your way. It would just be way too much trouble to have two parties within five days of each other, and besides, you didn’t mind having a conjoined birthday party.

However, Nanna did insist on making an absolutely absurd amount of cake. You’d never seen so much cake before in your life, not even when she baked for John’s birthday. It was kind of frightening exactly how much cake the woman was able to bake in one day, but then, she did have sprite powers.

Tonight is Christmas Eve. You know it is, due to your (former?) status as Knight of Time. You don’t have any other Time powers, but you’re basically the one everyone goes to if they want to know the exact date and time. It’s kind of irritating, especially if you’re doing something else, but it’s not like you really serve any other useful purpose.

Anyway, Jade decided that since tonight is Christmas Eve, you were all going to have a totally awesome Christmas party. She also decided you could exchange gifts tomorrow. You said you thought that Christmas parties between friends are usually on Christmas Day so they can exchange gifts at the party, but she growled at you so you shut up.

John bursts into the room you two share, jerking you out of your reverie.

“Sup?” you ask, raising an eyebrow.

“Dude, where’ve you been? Jade’s already getting started,” he pants breathlessly. Obviously he ran all the way here.

“Already? It’s only three seventeen. Shit, she’s a bit excited, isn’t she?” You get up and float after him as he trots off.

“Well, yeah! Last year we didn’t really do much, ‘cause it was our first year on the ship and we were still kinda settling in.” He turns to grin at you, and you try not to notice exactly how blue his eyes are. You fail.

Apparently Jade gets impatient with how slow you two are, because the next thing you know there’s a flash of green, and when your vision clears you’re in what is essentially the hub of the ship, where everyone hangs out and has awesome parties.

Right now it’s decorated for Christmas, complete with conksuck tree. There’s also a real Christmas tree, though, which is a good thing. The conksuck tree is mainly there for ironic purposes, and you definitely wouldn’t want to try to put gifts under its jpeg shittiness.

Jade is standing next to an enormous, Christmas-themed cake (which you assume was baked by Nanna), her hands on her hips as she glares at you.

“Daaaavespriiiite, what were you doing??? It was taking you so long to get here! I thought I told you what time the party started!!”

You blink at her for a few moments. “…Did you?”

She shakes her head at you, sighing. “Boys!”

You’re about to take offense, but then John asks, “What should we do first?? Play a video game? Watch a movie?”

“Ooh! I want to watch a movie!” Jade squeals, bouncing on her toes and clasping her hands in front of her.

You hold up a clawed hand. “Hold up. Did you get proper movie snacks?”

They both shake their heads, and you sigh. “Jesus, I can’t fucking believe you guys. You can’t watch a movie without snacks. It just isn’t done. While you guys pick what to watch, I’ll go grab snacks.”

You float away as they begin debating what to watch first. When you get to the kitchen, you find that (surprise, surprise) Nanna is baking what promises to be a metric fuckton of Christmas cookies. She looks up as you enter.  
“Oh, hello dear! Is there something you wanted?”

“Just getting snacks, Mrs. Egbert,” you reply, floating over to the cupboard and opening it. You grab a bag of popcorn and put it in the microwave, selecting the rest of your snacks while it pops. After much debate you settle on a bag of Doritos, a bottle of Sunny D, and a plate of freshly-baked sugar cookies. Nanna waves at you as you leave.

When you get back, John looks at how much you’re carrying and comes to help you. Almost immediately, Jade lets out a squeal, and you look over at her for an explanation.

“You two are under the mistletoe!!”

You look up, and there is indeed mistletoe hanging in the doorway. You’re really not sure how you missed it.

John, who was in the middle of taking the bottle of Sunny D from you, is really quite red in the face. You can feel your own face heat up as you look at him.

“Go on, kiss! You have to. It’s the rules,” Jade reminds you.

You guess you don’t have a choice then, if it’s the rules. You jerk your head forward and press your lips to his, your shades clacking against his glasses before you adjust. You pull back pretty quickly, because holy shit even though that wasn’t much of a kiss it was still way too nice, and you just can’t allow yourself to get lost in the feeling of kissing him.

He laughs awkwardly when it’s over with, and you try a smile in response, despite the aching in your heart.

“No homo,” he says, and you almost hate him for being able to brush it off that easily.

You’d give anything to be able to say “no homo”, and mean it, and forget that it ever happened. But you can’t, because you’re the gayest gay that ever gayed, and you just happen to be in love with your best friend.

“Yeah, dude, no homo,” you manage, and you hope to god your voice doesn’t sound strained. John just smiles and nods, but Jade gives you a knowing look, and you don’t think you fooled her at all.

John helps you carry the snacks over to the couch, where you sit down and proceed to watch Nester, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. You’re really not sure how they decided on that, but whatever. You don’t pay much attention, anyway. You are deep in contemplation of exactly how complicated your feelings for John are.

By the end of the movie, Jade is simultaneously laughing and crying, and going, “Oh my god, that was such a great movie!! Let’s watch Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer next!”

You don’t argue with her, so the rest of the day and night is spent watching children’s Christmas movies. It isn’t really an awesome party, more of a movie marathon, but you aren’t complaining. At some point you feel a warm weight come to rest on your fluffy shoulder, and you look down to see that John has fallen asleep on you. You wrap your wing around him, and notice that Jade is yawning too.

“Okay, I think it’s time for bed,” you murmur to her, careful not to wake John. She nods and stands, stretches, then disappears in a flash of green light. John stirs a little, and you scoop him up, carrying him bridal style. He nuzzles you a little in his sleep, and damn this kid is so cute you can’t stand it.

You take him back to his/your room, careful not to jostle him too much, and settle down in your nest with him. When you lay down, he snuggles up to you instinctively, and you wrap him up in your wings, taking off his glasses and setting them down carefully on one of the sides of the nest that you aren’t using.

Before drifting off, you press a light kiss to his forehead, whispering, “Merry Christmas, John.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> davesprite avoids john for a while  
> then john finds him and things work out  
> the author is bad at summaries

Your name is John Egbert, and Dave has been avoiding you for about two weeks now. You think it started after the Christmas Eve party…Er, movie marathon. He hasn’t said a word to you since then, except on Christmas Day, when you all exchanged gifts, but that didn’t really count! Jade would have been so pissed if he didn’t show up.

She’s pissed at him anyway for hiding from you for two weeks, and you guess you’re a little pissed, too. But mostly you’re just hurt and confused. Did you do something wrong?

You’ve been sneaking around the ship, trying to find him and force him to talk to you or something, and you’ve come close a couple of times! You’ll see a flash of orange out of the corner of your eye, but by the time you go to look, he’s long gone. Damn sprite powers.

You can’t help but think that it’s because of that kiss under the mistletoe, but why would it be? You said no homo, even if you didn’t really mean it, because shit, Dave is your best bro, and probably straight!! Why do you even have a crush on him you are so stupid ugh.

You at least hope he likes his Christmas present from you. You couldn’t think what to give him that he couldn’t get for himself, and then you remembered that Rose used to talk about knitting…

Eventually, you managed to knit a blanket. It had taken a while to learn how to knit, but luckily there were plenty of books on the subject in Rose’s house on LOLAR. Also, plenty of yarn and knitting needles. It wasn’t the best blanket ever, but you were proud of it.

You’re not sure if he’s actually using it, as he moved his nest out of your room sometime on Christmas Day, and you don’t know where it is. You wouldn’t have thought that Dave would have been able to find a way to hide a whole nest, but he did.

You’re wandering the halls again, almost having given up hope of finding Dave but willing to try anyway, when you hear his voice coming from a room up ahead. You stop, then creep closer to listen, stopping just short of the doorframe.

“—stupid of me. I mean, he’s my best bro, right?”

“Glub!”

Is he talking to one of the salamanders? About you, no less! He sighs, and continues as though the salamander said something meaningful.

“Yeah, I know. He’s not my best bro. He’s Alpha Dave’s best bro.”

The salamander just glubs, but you feel as though you’ve been punched in the gut. After all this, how can he think he’s not your best bro? As far as you’re concerned, he’s your Dave.

“That’s why I’ve gotta stay away. Give Alpha Dave a chance to tell him, right?”

Wait, what? Tell you what?

“I just…fuck. I love him so much. I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself if I go on cuddling with him and…and sharing a bed with him, all ‘no homo!’”

“Gluuub?”

You can hardly breathe; your heart is racing. Dave…Dave loves you? That’s why he’s staying away? Shit…

You try to sneak away, but you trip over your own feet and fall to the floor with a resounding crash. You roll over and sit up, noticing that Dave is now hovering in the doorway, watching you.

“How much did you hear?” he asks, one eyebrow raised.

“Was I supposed to hear something?” you ask, but your cheeks burn with embarrassment, and he sighs.

“Look, I…I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” You blink at him.

He nods. “Yeah, I should’ve told you.”

You bite your lip. “Well, I would have liked to know, yeah…But if you had told me too soon, I would’ve been all, ‘Dave, I’m not a homosexual!!’”

Dave stares at you for so long that you shift uncomfortably. “…But you’re not. Are you?”

“I…” You hesitate before answering. “I’m not sure, anymore? I mean, I like girls and everything! But Dave, I…I like you a, a lot, and I actually liked it a lot when you kissed me?? And shit, that sounded so awkward, haha…”

“John.”

“Yes, Dave?”

“Shut up.” Before you can make a witty retort, something along the lines of “or what?”, he pulls you close and crushes his mouth to yours.

You’re not exactly sure what’s supposed to be happening, since this is only your second kiss ever, and your first really wasn’t much of a kiss. Your teeth kind of get in the way, and you’re nervous as hell, but it’s perfect.

After a few moments, you pull away, only to lean your forehead against Dave’s, your arms draped around his neck. He smiles at you, and it’s an actual, honest-to-goodness smile, not a smirk. You smile in return, stroking his hair gently.

“So, are you going to move your nest back into my room?” You ask as he presses a kiss to your cheek.

“Definitely,” he replies, and you grin. Things are definitely looking a lot better.

FIN.


End file.
